


Revisiting TAB through the lens of TFP

by notagarroter (redbuttonhole)



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Episode: The Abominable Bride, Gen, Meta, Repressed Memories, The Final Problem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 08:48:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11272047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbuttonhole/pseuds/notagarroter
Summary: How The Abominable Bride foreshadowed the revelations of S4.





	Revisiting TAB through the lens of TFP

Much has been made of the parallels between The Hounds of Baskerville and The Final Problem, but it recently occurred to me to look back to another episode, The Abominable Bride, for parallels and foreshadowing of TFP. 

The plot of TFP is built entirely around the idea that Sherlock has repressed traumatic memories from his childhood.  Since the concept of TAB is built entirely on the idea that Sherlock is plumbing the depths of his own memory for insight into his current situation, it makes sense that there would be a connection between the two episodes.  This seems especially likely if we consider that TAB is, in a way, laying the groundwork for S4 – by the time Moftiss were writing TAB, they probably knew at least the broad outline of the story line for S4.

So, what clues did they leave us?

The most straightforward one is Redbeard:  

  


 

> WATSON: As your friend – as someone who ... worries about you – what made you like this?  
>  _(Holmes has opened his eyes and looks at his friend almost sympathetically.)_  
>  HOLMES: Oh, Watson. Nothing made me.  
>  _(From somewhere to his left, scrabbling claws can be heard together with a sound of a dog whimpering anxiously, or as if it is in pain. Holmes turns his head in the direction of the sound.)_  
>  HOLMES: I made me.  
>  _(The scrabbling and whimpering continues. Holmes frowns in confusion.)_  
>  HOLMES: Redbeard?

and then later:

  


 

These are both very brief mentions, but they seem pretty inarguably to be intended as foreshadowing for the role "Redbeard" is going to play in TFP.  Holmes's claim, "I made me", immediately undermined by the reference to Redbeard clearly suggests that there is something important and influential in his childhood he isn't ready to acknowledge.  And Mycroft's notebook strongly hints that he's aware of some kind of dark secret relating to "Redbeard".  TAB gives us the first indication that Redbeard might be more than a beloved dog who had to be put down.  

So far, so obvious.  But what else is there? 

* * *

 

Well, for starters, there's that suggestive reference to Freud:

> WATSON: Is it such a curious question?  
>  HOLMES: From a Viennese alienist, no; from a retired Army surgeon, most certainly.

Given that the majority of the episode takes place in Sherlock's dream, I think it's safe to say that this signals a direct engagement with Freudian notions of the unconscious, of trauma, and of repressed memory. The entire conversation with Watson in the greenhouse takes the form of a psychoanalytic session, and Holmes' line here makes that connection explicit.  

Even beyond that one conversation, the whole episode is preoccupied with the idea of going “deep” into one’s mind.

  


 

> HOLMES: Sometimes, to solve a case, one must first solve another.  
>  WATSON: Oh, you have a case, then, a new one?  
>  HOLMES _(softly)_ : An old one. Very old. I shall have to go deep.  
>  WATSON: Deep? Into what?  
>  HOLMES _(softly)_ : Myself.

Watching TAB without awareness of S4 and TFP, I understood this passage to be a reference to Moriarty on one hand and Ricoletti on the other.  To solve the Moriarty case, Sherlock has to figure out the old Ricoletti one that he's read about at some point.  That works, but it doesn't really explain why Sherlock seems so intense in this moment, or why he describes this act of memory as going deep into himself. There's no reason for him to have such a personal or emotional reaction to a 100 year old case.  

So, I've come to believe that this too is a bit of foreshadowing about Eurus and Victor.  Here in his drug-dream/mind-palace, Sherlock can acknowledge that there is something he has repressed in his memory.  He doesn't yet know what it is, but he knows something is there.  

TAB then gives us many, many references to the idea of Sherlock "going deeper" within himself, and the possible dangers associated with rooting around in one's memories:  

  


 

> MORIARTY: Too deep, Sherlock. Way too deep.  Congratulations. You’ll be the first man in history to be buried in his own Mind Palace.

Before S4, I was content to view this as MP!Moriarty warning Sherlock about the dangers of a drug overdose. But now it seems pretty clear to me that Moriarty is warning Sherlock about what secrets he might find if he digs too deep into his repressed memories.  Maybe even trying to prepare him.

  


 

> HOLMES: You may, however, rest assured there are no ghosts in this world.  
>  _(Watson nods slightly and looks out of the window. Holmes lowers his eyes.)_  
>  HOLMES _(quietly)_ : ... save those we make for ourselves.  
>  _(He closes his eyes and leans his head back against the headrest.)_  
>  WATSON _(looking round to him)_ : Sorry, what did you say?  
>  _(Holmes keeps his eyes closed.)_  
>  WATSON: Ghosts we make for ourselves? What do you mean?  
>  _(Holmes doesn’t respond. Watson sighs.)_

Watson's double reaction to Sherlock's statement serves to underline it and draw the audience's attention to it.  But why?  Within TAB, we never really learn what Sherlock means by the "ghosts we make for ourselves".  

> HOLMES: We all have a past, Watson.  
>  WATSON: Hmm.  
>  HOLMES: Ghosts – they are the shadows that define our every sunny day.  

and later:

> HOLMES _(furiously)_ : THERE ARE NO GHOSTS!

TAB is definitely playing with the ambiguity between literal ghosts and metaphorical ones.  The whole episode is a "ghost story" in which Holmes gets to prove that ghosts aren't real.  And yet... we also get these repeated and tantalizing references to some kind of ghost that Sherlock *does* believe in. Something is haunting him...  a memory he can't quite get a fix on. Something that played a role in making him the man he is today.  This ghost may not be supernatural, but Sherlock is getting the sense that it might nonetheless be terrifying.  

I think it's also worth considering The Bride's song, which is repeated a number of times throughout the episode:

  


 

> BRIDE _(singing)_ : ♪ Do not forget me ...  
>  BRIDE: ♪ Do not forget me ...  
>  BRIDE: ♪ Remember the maid ...  
>  BRIDE: ♪ The maid of the mill. ♪ 

What is the point of this song?  Sure, it's spooky and Victorian, which makes it an appropriate choice for a turn of the century ghost story.  But _memory_ isn't actually key to Emilia's complaints against her husband.  He didn't forget her, he mistreated her.  Same with Sir Eustace.  So why does the song place such an emphasis on remembering?  In light of TFP, I'm now seeing this as Sherlock's memory of Eurus just starting to resurface.  Though Sherlock doesn't yet know it consciously, _Eurus_ is the "maid" who has been forgotten (and is furious about this fact).  

This also ties into the "MISS ME" motif, which seems (in HLV and TAB) to be about Moriarty – after all, it's Moriarty we see uttering the phrase.  But over the course of S4, it starts to become clear that there is someone else who wants to be missed – Eurus.  I think TAB is our first indication that "MISS ME" is doing double duty. 

  


 

> MYCROFT HOLMES: _Do_ you miss him?  
>  HOLMES: Moriarty is dead.  
>  MYCROFT HOLMES: And yet.

Of course Sherlock misses Moriarty, after a fashion – that much is clear from the text of the episode.  But in retrospect, I think Sherlock's also starting to remember that there is someone else he misses—someone who was traumatically taken from him many years ago.  (One could read this as Victor, though I'm slightly more inclined to read it as Eurus.  Could be both.)

Lastly I think we can look at the whole premise of the episode – the "invisible army" of women who have been silenced, ignored, and abused, and are now returning to exact their revenge.  We see within the episode that Sherlock connects this idea explicitly to the way he has treated Molly and Janine, but in light of S4, it also suggests an burgeoning awareness that there is yet another woman Sherlock "wronged".  Arguably, Sherlock's unconscious cooked up this whole mad plot, this "league of furies" because Sherlock's memories of Eurus were starting to resurface.  

Throughout TAB, Sherlock’s unconscious is reminding him of a specific woman he has ignored and forgotten, but who won’t be ignored much longer.

[ _All quotations pulled from ariane devere’s transcripts._ ](https://arianedevere.dreamwidth.org/)


End file.
